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Lucky Lady Card Room
Located only 1 mile from the campus of San Diego State University, The Lucky Lady is a freestanding building in a somewhat rundown area of town. Games Limit hold 'em: 3/6 with a full kill, 4/8 with a kill, 8/16 with a kill. No-limit hold 'em: 1/3 blinds 30-200 buyin, 5/5 blinds 200-500 buyin. Lowball: 5/10 and 10/20. Only spread when there's interest, but there is enough interest to spread it a few nights every week. Killer acts last in the preflop betting round. Limit hold 'em seems more popular at the Lucky Lady than no-limit, but not by much. The time I was there on a Sunday evening, there were three tables of limit, one of no-limit. They opened a new limit game while I waited as the lists were getting long. The limit games seem tougher than you would expect a smalltown card room to have; perhaps the proximity of Indian casinos leads to only serious poker players showing up at local card rooms. Regardless, even the 3/6 kill game was notably trickier than a usual card room low limit game. Wait Time: A very small number of tables, leads to occasional long wait times. Good thing they have a sofa to sit on while you wait. Rake: $4 for 7-9 players, $3 for 6 players, $2 for 3-5 players. No flop, no drop. Rake is taken from the pot before the flop. Posting: New players need not post to enter a game. Shuffling: All tables have Shufflemaster shuffling machines. Tournaments There is a daily tournament at 10am. $25 buy-in with unlimited $20 re-buys for the first 20 minutes. Jackpots and Promotions * Jackpots: ** AAAJJ beat by quads or better = $4900 (in Jul 06). ** 64321 beat by the wheel in Lowball is the same bad beat jackpot. Atmosphere A smalltown and pleasant cardroom in a commercial storefront building on a reasonably busy street in San Diego. Open and spacious room, brightly lit by the sun through the big glass windows during the day. 8 big TV's spaced about the room. An interesting separate "waiting area" where you can lounge while waiting for a seat with a sofa and a few chairs. Slightly lower than usual ceilings, and plenty of ceiling fans to keep the place airy. Generally pleasant decor, with mustard and lilac paint on the walls of the two rooms. While playing, I was suddenly startled when the dealer yelled out "I need a knife! Knife on 3!". Everyone else kept on playing normally, but I sat back and looked around: why did the dealer need a knife? No one looked particularly worried, but soon a waitress came up with a knife. She handed it to the dealer. At the next break in play, the dealer grabbed the knife and suddenly jammed it down - into the chip drop. Oh. I sighed a bit internally and watched as she wiggled it around to free up the jammed chips. Whew. It's not generally a good sign when your dealer yells she needs a knife! Tables and Chairs: 9-seat tables with decent felt and vinyl. Fixed leg chairs with a decent amount of padding. Parking: I don't believe there's much parking at the casino proper, but I'm not sure. I parked on the street, and it was no trouble. (edit: There is parking next to the casino, with a free valet most nights.) Smoking: No smoking allowed in the building under California law. Service and Comps A decent if not large menu, with decent prices and a seated players discount. Service was not super-speedy but made it around the tables every now and then. Links and Notes *An article about San Diego Poker in a local paper mentions the Lucky Lady along with other card rooms and casinos. *Visited by MarkT in Jul 2006. * Nearest competitor is the Palomar Card Club only a few miles away.